It is a matter of being treated like a criminal first.
First of all, plagarism isn't a criminal offence, or really anything like one. It's an acedemic offence. I don't know how you could possibly come to be so outraged. Second, if you RTFA, you'll see that McGill is using "TurnitIn.com" on a limited trial basis.
Additionally, some people have raised the point that it is somehow wrong that a company get access to these students works. I don't know how it works at most schools, but I'm a Canadian university student (from Ontario, that big province next to Quebec - where McGill is) and at my school, it is expressly stated in many places that all work submitted for classes is the sole property of the University. If they want to sell it, hey, its their right. Not that there have in the past been many cases where there was much commercial value to an undergrads course work.
Which brings me to my next point: This kid is being a whiny little snot. Did you see his picture? He looks like a scruffy little Che wannabe. He should be happy that there is even a tiny commercial demand for his work, such as it is. (Note: He got B's and C's on the papers mentioned. Yes, the schoold did in fact agree to re-evaluate his papers after originally giving him zeroes.) And look who he's backed up by: The Canadian Federation of Students. I'm not sure if its the same everywhere, but Student Fedrations in Canada are notoriously leftist, overreacting, and nearly if not completely dysfunctional organizations. Look at their quote:
From the article: "The reality is that the high monitoring of students really isn't about catching cheaters, it is a substitute for hiring enough faculty members to take the time to read student work," said Ian Boyko, national chair of the student federation.
"...Really isn't about catching cheaters"!!?? For their TRIAL use of the program which they PAY FOR!? Does anyone actually believe that this is some kind of conspiracy to a) make money, or b) somehow trample on the poor little student? Are they accusing the system of marking students papers without looking at them? This is simply a huge overreaction, although very characteristic and not at all surprising
This whole thing nothing but a case of trying to stop what is actually a very large and very real problem in acedemia, particularly at the undergrad level. I for one am thankful that they are taking serious steps to address the issue, instead of ignoring it.
Did you watch the movie? Its not cold fusion at all, and they never claim it is.
They shine a laser through a chamber of water (which is being 'vibrated' or something, by this machined part that keanu makes at the start. big whoop) Anyway, this laser supposedly separates the water into hydrogen, and oxygen, which they burn for power. They also claim that upon recombining the oxygen and hydrogen (aka, burning it), they can get more energy out then they put in.
In essence, they have a pretty little perpetual motion machine there, since the burning produces water that can be fed back into the tank, making it a closed energy creation system.
Other parts of the movie that I wont go into make me think that the original story was about cold fusion, but they thought it would be over the average viewers head, so they rewrote it with the hydrogen/oxygen from water concept.
Sorry to rant, but talking about this movie always gets me riled up!
Yogi Bear, Godzilla (ack!),Snagglepus, Atomic Ant, the Tom and Jerry from the age (the oroginals are *classic*) and the many derivatives and re-packaging such as The Jetsons, Galaxy Goofups gave the impression that Hanna Barbera had a crap factory somewhere.
Yeah, some of those shows are pretty bad, but without the Hanna Barbera crap factories, we wouldn't have Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
The second movie survived on two things: the cool special effects of the T2000, and the twist that Arnold was the bad guy.
Arnold was the bad guy? I must have missed the directors cut. Is that the one where in the last scene, Arnold reaches out with his good hand and snatches John into the fire with him? Now that'd be a mindfuck!
There's something about the yahoo article that rubs me the wrong way.
The country's fourth-largest computer maker is taking to the airwaves in a bid to rally consumers against a copyright-protection bill that would prevent computers from playing pirated movies and music.
The ad campaign underscores the furor over a bill introduced last month by South Carolina Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings that would prevent new computers, CD players and other consumer-electronics devices from playing unauthorized movies, music and other digital media files.
They seem to be (intentiaonally?) missing the point. This bill is being opposed because its solution to copyright infringment is to destroy fair use capability. Sorry if we don't like being assumed to be criminals simply for owning a computer.
In other news, a new anti-rape bill proposed by Senator Hollings will see the castrating of all males over the age of 10.
Hmmm. Something about karma whoring at work makes me feel dirty...
Unfortunately, you've missed the point completely.
Laws, as well as "rights" are never absolutes. Without some mechanism of change in this area, you get such logical absurdities such as the constitutional amendments.
I don't see how you can rail against something like the Not Withstanding clause (which you probably know nothing about) yet defend the ammendments which fundamentally change the character and nature of the constitution!
If you, as a Canadian, can view the complacency and self-absorption of the bulk of the United States and still be as deluded as they are, you might as well move there; You would fit right in.
Why does everyone bring up 1984 like it's the fucking gospel? I seem to recall an essay by Asimov (can't remember the title, and I can't go find it cause I'm at work) that advocates the use of this kind of ID card. He brings up many cogent points, at least grounded in reality.
I'm not particularly afraid of this kind of thing. It seems to be basically all the same information you would already have to carry around, just in one place. Okay, sure - you wouldn't want to lose it - but I don't see how this is in any way the first sign of the apocalypse!
While we're on the grocery analogy, what about the concept of loss-leaders?
Maybe record stores/companies could offer some music below cost to draw in customers? Of course this would only work if the price per CD was dramatically reduced, but I know that if CDs were priced closer to cost, I'd buy a lot more!
what about that.1% that are not sterile and have some rather interesting manipulations in their 'seed'?
Yes, like being completly useless abominations that die quickly after birth?
Besides, the point is that the non-sterile flies will have a harder time surviving because they are competing with a mass of others who won't reproduce anyway. Any flies born with radiation induced mutations would still be under the same survival pressure, and are supposed to die anyway, if not from their "interesting" mutations.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't that mean that each episode is LESS cheesy than the one before it?
just sayin'...
Why did this get modded up?
It is a matter of being treated like a criminal first.
First of all, plagarism isn't a criminal offence, or really anything like one. It's an acedemic offence. I don't know how you could possibly come to be so outraged. Second, if you RTFA, you'll see that McGill is using "TurnitIn.com" on a limited trial basis.
Additionally, some people have raised the point that it is somehow wrong that a company get access to these students works. I don't know how it works at most schools, but I'm a Canadian university student (from Ontario, that big province next to Quebec - where McGill is) and at my school, it is expressly stated in many places that all work submitted for classes is the sole property of the University. If they want to sell it, hey, its their right. Not that there have in the past been many cases where there was much commercial value to an undergrads course work.
Which brings me to my next point: This kid is being a whiny little snot. Did you see his picture? He looks like a scruffy little Che wannabe. He should be happy that there is even a tiny commercial demand for his work, such as it is. (Note: He got B's and C's on the papers mentioned. Yes, the schoold did in fact agree to re-evaluate his papers after originally giving him zeroes.) And look who he's backed up by: The Canadian Federation of Students. I'm not sure if its the same everywhere, but Student Fedrations in Canada are notoriously leftist, overreacting, and nearly if not completely dysfunctional organizations. Look at their quote:
From the article: "The reality is that the high monitoring of students really isn't about catching cheaters, it is a substitute for hiring enough faculty members to take the time to read student work," said Ian Boyko, national chair of the student federation.
"...Really isn't about catching cheaters"!!?? For their TRIAL use of the program which they PAY FOR!? Does anyone actually believe that this is some kind of conspiracy to a) make money, or b) somehow trample on the poor little student? Are they accusing the system of marking students papers without looking at them? This is simply a huge overreaction, although very characteristic and not at all surprising
This whole thing nothing but a case of trying to stop what is actually a very large and very real problem in acedemia, particularly at the undergrad level. I for one am thankful that they are taking serious steps to address the issue, instead of ignoring it.
Did you watch the movie? Its not cold fusion at all, and they never claim it is.
They shine a laser through a chamber of water (which is being 'vibrated' or something, by this machined part that keanu makes at the start. big whoop) Anyway, this laser supposedly separates the water into hydrogen, and oxygen, which they burn for power. They also claim that upon recombining the oxygen and hydrogen (aka, burning it), they can get more energy out then they put in.
In essence, they have a pretty little perpetual motion machine there, since the burning produces water that can be fed back into the tank, making it a closed energy creation system.
Other parts of the movie that I wont go into make me think that the original story was about cold fusion, but they thought it would be over the average viewers head, so they rewrote it with the hydrogen/oxygen from water concept.
Sorry to rant, but talking about this movie always gets me riled up!
Yogi Bear, Godzilla (ack!),Snagglepus, Atomic Ant, the Tom and Jerry from the age (the oroginals are *classic*) and the many derivatives and re-packaging such as The Jetsons, Galaxy Goofups gave the impression that Hanna Barbera had a crap factory somewhere.
Yeah, some of those shows are pretty bad, but without the Hanna Barbera crap factories, we wouldn't have Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
The second movie survived on two things: the cool special effects of the T2000, and the twist that Arnold was the bad guy.
Arnold was the bad guy? I must have missed the directors cut. Is that the one where in the last scene, Arnold reaches out with his good hand and snatches John into the fire with him? Now that'd be a mindfuck!
And where else do you get to see a Gay Wilhem Defoe?
Haven't you seen Platoon?
There's something about the yahoo article that rubs me the wrong way.
The country's fourth-largest computer maker is taking to the airwaves in a bid to rally consumers against a copyright-protection bill that would prevent computers from playing pirated movies and music.
The ad campaign underscores the furor over a bill introduced last month by South Carolina Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings that would prevent new computers, CD players and other consumer-electronics devices from playing unauthorized movies, music and other digital media files.
They seem to be (intentiaonally?) missing the point. This bill is being opposed because its solution to copyright infringment is to destroy fair use capability. Sorry if we don't like being assumed to be criminals simply for owning a computer.
In other news, a new anti-rape bill proposed by Senator Hollings will see the castrating of all males over the age of 10.
Hmmm. Something about karma whoring at work makes me feel dirty...
Unfortunately, you've missed the point completely.
Laws, as well as "rights" are never absolutes. Without some mechanism of change in this area, you get such logical absurdities such as the constitutional amendments.
I don't see how you can rail against something like the Not Withstanding clause (which you probably know nothing about) yet defend the ammendments which fundamentally change the character and nature of the constitution!
If you, as a Canadian, can view the complacency and self-absorption of the bulk of the United States and still be as deluded as they are, you might as well move there; You would fit right in.
Why does everyone bring up 1984 like it's the fucking gospel? I seem to recall an essay by Asimov (can't remember the title, and I can't go find it cause I'm at work) that advocates the use of this kind of ID card. He brings up many cogent points, at least grounded in reality.
I'm not particularly afraid of this kind of thing. It seems to be basically all the same information you would already have to carry around, just in one place. Okay, sure - you wouldn't want to lose it - but I don't see how this is in any way the first sign of the apocalypse!
Ah, whatever - Flame away...
As I recall, Boy Hits Car played Conan O'brien a while back. Can't confirm that though. Does it count, anyway?
While we're on the grocery analogy, what about the concept of loss-leaders?
Maybe record stores/companies could offer some music below cost to draw in customers? Of course this would only work if the price per CD was dramatically reduced, but I know that if CDs were priced closer to cost, I'd buy a lot more!
"We wrote the book on tree-free paper..."
Thats pretty funny. Oh, it wasn't a joke?
what about that .1% that are not sterile and have some rather interesting manipulations in their 'seed'?
Yes, like being completly useless abominations that die quickly after birth?
Besides, the point is that the non-sterile flies will have a harder time surviving because they are competing with a mass of others who won't reproduce anyway. Any flies born with radiation induced mutations would still be under the same survival pressure, and are supposed to die anyway, if not from their "interesting" mutations.